“I’m going to Hogwarts!” aka, It’s All About the Journey

Yesterday, Sally was continually reminding us to “Read your Pilgrim’s Way book.” Since we were SUPPOSED to read this book before the course of every day, it seemed odd to me that she was impressing this need so often. Then, the repetition became “Read your Pilgrim’s Way book or be left behind on our journey tomorrow.” The book gave us a vague overview of what our plans were to be, but no concrete experiences were listed for the time of day before lunch. So, I’ve got to say that we were showing great faith in both Martin and Sally by boarding Agnes, the minibus, without any idea where we might be going. We set off down the skinny country roads of the North Yorkshire Moors. Many steep hills and many many sheep later, we arrived at our destination. It was a train station!!!!!!!!Now I’ve only been on one train in my lifetime, and I would hardly count it as a particularly exciting experience. But I had this feeling this time would be different. The old fasioned steam engine sat on the tracks at the Grosmont train station. It was a blue train, and it was wonderful.  This surprise got me to thinking, maybe it really IS all about the journey, like Sally always says. We bought our tickets and we bought refreshments for the journey. We crossed the tracks and got into one of the very last cars of the train. We spit into two compartments-Sally, Bryn, Jack, Ian, Christina, Alex, and me into one; Ben, Trevor, Kristi, and Cindy into the other. We broke out our endless supply of chocolate that makes an appearance at almost every event and waited for this particular leg of our journey to commence. Suddenly, I was overcome with excitement. Wanna know why? I’ll tell ya. I realized that this particular train, this particular compartment, and the fact that we were in Englad all bore uncanny resemblances to Harry Potter and his journey on the Hogwarts Express. I started bouncing on my red velvet seat and squealing “I’m going to Hogwarts! I’m going to Hogwarts!”Jack and I hummed the opening music to the Harry Potter movies as the train began to move.  The steam began to fly past the windows, and we entered a deep, dark tunnel. The excitement started!  We joked about the treats cart coming down the thin aisle, and dementors entering the car.  We stared out the windows at the passing English countryside, stuck our heads out the windows, and did other such rambunctious things. We finally arrived at our surprise destination, Goathland. This may seem like an insignificantt train stop in the middle of the English counryside of the North Yorkshire Moors, but it was so much more than that!! It was the station the filmmakers used as Hogsmeade station in the Harry Potter movies!!! So  it was like I was going to Hogwarts after all! This completely unexcpected journey in the midst of our pilgrimage was a really special experience. I was overcome with new thoughts and musings about “the journey” we were on, and the word “journey” took on an entire new meaning.

you see it really is all about the journey.

Blessings and Prayers from all the Pilgrims, Mackenzie